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This quick tutorial will assume that you have already downloaded the Resources for TLW, and either patched the PPF of The Lion War to your game or built it from scratch with the Resources. (You shouldn't need to do a full Resources build just for this.)
I'm going to be using The Lion War of the Lions for this, but the process should be the same no matter which version of TLW you use.
We'll be starting with inserting a custom sprite. There are custom sprites all over the place, with one such source being the FFH Custom Sprites page. https://ffhacktics.com/sprites.php You can also find them on the forums, or extract them directly from mods. I'll be using the Agrias sprite from Journey of the Five, because it amuses me.
Within the Resources, you'll want to go to the ASM folder, where the FFTPatcher Suite is kept.
Choose the top option - the .495 folder.
Open ShishiSpriteEditor.
File -> Open ISO. Navigate to your TLW ISO and open it.
Click the dropdown menu for Sprites. TLW opens up several blank slots for you to use.
That said, not all of them are completely free - there also needs to be no existing (used) Job in the same slot in the Patcher. You also need to use the entries earlier up on the list - once you reach the generic unit sprites, you start dealing with some hardcoding issues.
We'll use 22 here. It's free in both Shishi and the FFTPatcher (as we'll see later).
Before importing a sprite, make sure the Type is set correctly. There are few different kinds of sprite types, and if you get it wrong, you can see issues such as how the arms won't be attached correctly. In this case, Jot5 Agrias is Type 1, so it's fine. Move your sprite folder window next to the Shishi window, then drag and drop your chosen sprite in.
Click on the Other Images tab and choose "UNIT.BIN (Formation Screen Sprites)" from the dropdown menu.
Find an entry that goes unused in TLW/vanilla, such as 12 - Balmafula. She never joins the party, not even as a guest in vanilla.
Make sure the same entry is also just as free in WLDFACE.BIN. Entry 12 is also Balmafula there, so we're perfectly fine.
Follow this guide to create and import UNIT and WLDFACE entries for your new unit: https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6702.0
(In my case, I just exported them from Jot5 Chapter 1 and inserted them here.)
That's the sprite stuff done! Now close Shishi - a very important step, since Shishi remaining open on the ISO prevents other edits from being made to it.
Then, let's go to the Patcher and prepare the job.
Go to File - Open Patch. In the Resources, you'll find the FFTP file within the PATCHER FILES folder.
In the Jobs tab, go to entry 22.
Set up the job however you like. Since I'm using an Agrias sprite, I'll just copy the stats directly from Agrias' 1E Holy Knight Job by right-clicking it, selecting Clone, then right-clicking Job 22 and clicking Paste.
There is one more important thing to do here, though - you must change the Formation Sprites entries, and they must match, or the colors get completely fucked up. Remember that we chose 12 earlier for the UNIT and WLDFACE? Just change these ones to that.
Finally, you may want to customize your own Skill Set for this unit, but I won't cover that here. It's pretty straightforward as is. Besides, most people want sword skills anyway, haha.
Now we'll insert this custom unit into an event that she can join in. Go to the ENTD tab and choose 102, which in TLW is the Military Academy event in which Delita and the generics join the party in Chapter 1.
Note that because our unit has a unique sprite, you should count the number of unique sprites used in the ENTD. There can only be 9 unique sprites on the field at any one time. Thankfully, there are 8 unique sprites total here - so having one more is no problem at all!
Choose an empty unit slot in here and fill out the fields as you like. You can set the unit's equipment, equipped skills and skillsets, gender, and so on, as you like.
Set the Unit and Current Job to 22, the Sprite and Job ID of the custom unit.
The Name ID 22 is set as Mustadio, but in TLW, Mustadio should always use Entry 16 - this is just a now-unused duplicate. So we'll use it here instead.
Pick a free unit ID - 88 should do.
Click the Join After Event and Always Present boxes.
There's one last thing to do, though. Your unit needs a valid X/Y position to stand in - if 0,0 is off the map, they won't appear, even while checked as Always Present. You can take a look at the FFH Map list and see what's open here.
https://ffhacktics.com/maps.php
Since this is the Military Academy Auditorium:
https://ffhacktics.com/maps.php?id=24
Also for reference, you can check out a playthrough if you want to see all the locations on the map that are taken up during the event. 19:50 on this video gives us a good view of the Academy:
https://youtu.be/xwH9kGeG1DU?t=1190
The middle corner on the bottom-left seems free enough. According to the map image, that's got the coordinates of 1,1.
Let's go ahead and put the custom unit there.
That should do it for Patcher changes! Save your patch next to the TLW FFTPatcher file, and then apply the patch to your ISO under PSX - Patch ISO.
Now, close the Patcher. It's time to alter the TacText files.
There are two ways to do this: using TacText directly, and using the FFTText Editor. The FFTText Editor has more functionality, so I'll be using that, but you can feel free to use TacText if you don't have access to Excel or don't feel comfortable unblocking the Editor.
Go back to the Resources folder. This time, open the Spreadsheets folder, and go to the FFTText Editor. Right click it, and select Properties. In the window that pops up, click Unblock. The reason for this is that the FFTText Editor uses macros, which have the capability to write to other files. This functionality is blocked by default on files from unknown sources.
Now open the FFTText Editor. Towards the top, you'll likely see a prompt to enable editing. Click the button.
Go to Column AP: Quick Edit | Units - Names. Click "Ramza". Any one will do.
At the top, click Add-Ins, then Edit All.
You'll have a new view to look at. Scroll down to 022 Mustadio.
Click the "Mustadio" entry on the left and type in your new unit name.
Click Save Edits on the top left of the window.
Go to the next column on the right, AQ: Units - Quotes. Again, click one of the entries and then click Edit All.
Once again, go down to 022 and edit the quote to what you want the unit to have now before clicking Save Edits.
Scroll to the left to Column AI: Jobs - Names. Edit All, once again going to 22 and changing it to what you want before clicking Save Edits. Note: if you want this job to share the name of existing jobs, make sure to add an exclamation mark to it for now.
Then do the same for column AJ: Jobs - Descriptions.
Go to Column AK, Jobs - Requirements. Unlike before, we won't go to 022 - these entries are sorted differently, with generic jobs on the top. Scroll down (or use Ctrl+F) until you find the name of your new job. Looks like it goes in entry 35 this time. But something's off - there are only four lines there for this entry as opposed to the eight that other, full entries have!
Click one of the lines for this entry, then go to the top and click Add Pages.
We only want one more page, so just click OK.
There we go. NOW we have two pages.
Get your Requirements written up - typically, just the job description again but with Requirements: None on the second page - and click Save Edits.
If you gave the unit a unique skillset, go to Columns AN and AO to edit the name and description of it. After that, we're done! Click Export .ffttext on the top left, save it next to your TLWotL Text file with a new name, and then save and close the Excel file.
Now to import the .ffttext into the ISO, we'll need to use FFTactext. Go to the ASM folder like you did for Shishi and the Patcher, and open it.
File - Open .ffttext
You'll get a warning about missing files and will be asked if you want to load the rest from the ISO. Choose no. You DO NOT want that.
It will take a little while for TacText to open the file. But once it does, if you didn't make the changes in the spreadsheet, do so now under the Quick Edit dropdown selection. Otherwise, or when you finish, click ISO - Patch ISO.
Go ahead and patch your ISO. This will take some time as the program calculates what to do and where before getting started.
Eventually, you'll see "Success".
And that's that! Go in game and see how your unit looks.
I'm going to be using The Lion War of the Lions for this, but the process should be the same no matter which version of TLW you use.
We'll be starting with inserting a custom sprite. There are custom sprites all over the place, with one such source being the FFH Custom Sprites page. https://ffhacktics.com/sprites.php You can also find them on the forums, or extract them directly from mods. I'll be using the Agrias sprite from Journey of the Five, because it amuses me.
Within the Resources, you'll want to go to the ASM folder, where the FFTPatcher Suite is kept.
Choose the top option - the .495 folder.
Open ShishiSpriteEditor.
File -> Open ISO. Navigate to your TLW ISO and open it.
Click the dropdown menu for Sprites. TLW opens up several blank slots for you to use.
That said, not all of them are completely free - there also needs to be no existing (used) Job in the same slot in the Patcher. You also need to use the entries earlier up on the list - once you reach the generic unit sprites, you start dealing with some hardcoding issues.
We'll use 22 here. It's free in both Shishi and the FFTPatcher (as we'll see later).
Before importing a sprite, make sure the Type is set correctly. There are few different kinds of sprite types, and if you get it wrong, you can see issues such as how the arms won't be attached correctly. In this case, Jot5 Agrias is Type 1, so it's fine. Move your sprite folder window next to the Shishi window, then drag and drop your chosen sprite in.
Click on the Other Images tab and choose "UNIT.BIN (Formation Screen Sprites)" from the dropdown menu.
Find an entry that goes unused in TLW/vanilla, such as 12 - Balmafula. She never joins the party, not even as a guest in vanilla.
Make sure the same entry is also just as free in WLDFACE.BIN. Entry 12 is also Balmafula there, so we're perfectly fine.
Follow this guide to create and import UNIT and WLDFACE entries for your new unit: https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6702.0
(In my case, I just exported them from Jot5 Chapter 1 and inserted them here.)
That's the sprite stuff done! Now close Shishi - a very important step, since Shishi remaining open on the ISO prevents other edits from being made to it.
Then, let's go to the Patcher and prepare the job.
Go to File - Open Patch. In the Resources, you'll find the FFTP file within the PATCHER FILES folder.
In the Jobs tab, go to entry 22.
Set up the job however you like. Since I'm using an Agrias sprite, I'll just copy the stats directly from Agrias' 1E Holy Knight Job by right-clicking it, selecting Clone, then right-clicking Job 22 and clicking Paste.
There is one more important thing to do here, though - you must change the Formation Sprites entries, and they must match, or the colors get completely fucked up. Remember that we chose 12 earlier for the UNIT and WLDFACE? Just change these ones to that.
Finally, you may want to customize your own Skill Set for this unit, but I won't cover that here. It's pretty straightforward as is. Besides, most people want sword skills anyway, haha.
Now we'll insert this custom unit into an event that she can join in. Go to the ENTD tab and choose 102, which in TLW is the Military Academy event in which Delita and the generics join the party in Chapter 1.
Note that because our unit has a unique sprite, you should count the number of unique sprites used in the ENTD. There can only be 9 unique sprites on the field at any one time. Thankfully, there are 8 unique sprites total here - so having one more is no problem at all!
Choose an empty unit slot in here and fill out the fields as you like. You can set the unit's equipment, equipped skills and skillsets, gender, and so on, as you like.
Set the Unit and Current Job to 22, the Sprite and Job ID of the custom unit.
The Name ID 22 is set as Mustadio, but in TLW, Mustadio should always use Entry 16 - this is just a now-unused duplicate. So we'll use it here instead.
Pick a free unit ID - 88 should do.
Click the Join After Event and Always Present boxes.
There's one last thing to do, though. Your unit needs a valid X/Y position to stand in - if 0,0 is off the map, they won't appear, even while checked as Always Present. You can take a look at the FFH Map list and see what's open here.
https://ffhacktics.com/maps.php
Since this is the Military Academy Auditorium:
https://ffhacktics.com/maps.php?id=24
Also for reference, you can check out a playthrough if you want to see all the locations on the map that are taken up during the event. 19:50 on this video gives us a good view of the Academy:
https://youtu.be/xwH9kGeG1DU?t=1190
The middle corner on the bottom-left seems free enough. According to the map image, that's got the coordinates of 1,1.
Let's go ahead and put the custom unit there.
That should do it for Patcher changes! Save your patch next to the TLW FFTPatcher file, and then apply the patch to your ISO under PSX - Patch ISO.
Now, close the Patcher. It's time to alter the TacText files.
There are two ways to do this: using TacText directly, and using the FFTText Editor. The FFTText Editor has more functionality, so I'll be using that, but you can feel free to use TacText if you don't have access to Excel or don't feel comfortable unblocking the Editor.
Go back to the Resources folder. This time, open the Spreadsheets folder, and go to the FFTText Editor. Right click it, and select Properties. In the window that pops up, click Unblock. The reason for this is that the FFTText Editor uses macros, which have the capability to write to other files. This functionality is blocked by default on files from unknown sources.
Now open the FFTText Editor. Towards the top, you'll likely see a prompt to enable editing. Click the button.
Go to Column AP: Quick Edit | Units - Names. Click "Ramza". Any one will do.
At the top, click Add-Ins, then Edit All.
You'll have a new view to look at. Scroll down to 022 Mustadio.
Click the "Mustadio" entry on the left and type in your new unit name.
Click Save Edits on the top left of the window.
Go to the next column on the right, AQ: Units - Quotes. Again, click one of the entries and then click Edit All.
Once again, go down to 022 and edit the quote to what you want the unit to have now before clicking Save Edits.
Scroll to the left to Column AI: Jobs - Names. Edit All, once again going to 22 and changing it to what you want before clicking Save Edits. Note: if you want this job to share the name of existing jobs, make sure to add an exclamation mark to it for now.
Then do the same for column AJ: Jobs - Descriptions.
Go to Column AK, Jobs - Requirements. Unlike before, we won't go to 022 - these entries are sorted differently, with generic jobs on the top. Scroll down (or use Ctrl+F) until you find the name of your new job. Looks like it goes in entry 35 this time. But something's off - there are only four lines there for this entry as opposed to the eight that other, full entries have!
Click one of the lines for this entry, then go to the top and click Add Pages.
We only want one more page, so just click OK.
There we go. NOW we have two pages.
Get your Requirements written up - typically, just the job description again but with Requirements: None on the second page - and click Save Edits.
If you gave the unit a unique skillset, go to Columns AN and AO to edit the name and description of it. After that, we're done! Click Export .ffttext on the top left, save it next to your TLWotL Text file with a new name, and then save and close the Excel file.
Now to import the .ffttext into the ISO, we'll need to use FFTactext. Go to the ASM folder like you did for Shishi and the Patcher, and open it.
File - Open .ffttext
You'll get a warning about missing files and will be asked if you want to load the rest from the ISO. Choose no. You DO NOT want that.
It will take a little while for TacText to open the file. But once it does, if you didn't make the changes in the spreadsheet, do so now under the Quick Edit dropdown selection. Otherwise, or when you finish, click ISO - Patch ISO.
Go ahead and patch your ISO. This will take some time as the program calculates what to do and where before getting started.
Eventually, you'll see "Success".
And that's that! Go in game and see how your unit looks.
